SINGLE TREE 9

when single drove into the mine compound the first thing he noticed there was no activity. none. he stopped at the cook tent and untied ramundos mules and began unhitching them from the cart, he felt a presence behind him and turned to find clara standing there. " hi boss. where is everyone?"he asked. " dureing the night they all disapeared. ran away. wheres ramundo?" clara asked. single then explained what happened on the trip and told her ramundo was in the wagon. they went to the end gate on the wagon and single let it down. ramundo was sitting up, leaning on one elbow. " buenos dias patrona" he mumbled. when clara saw him she sucked in a big breath." my god" was all she could say. ramundo carefully slid to the end of the wagon and single helped him to the ground.clara went in the cook tent and made up a cot for him. when they got the mexican cook comfortable single asked clara where hanford was. " he s up at the mine trying to put the crusher together. it was half done when the laborers bolted. why would they do that?" she asked ramundo raised up and said : banditos!" single nodded in agreemeent." that band of banditos has been watching you for some time. they want what ever gold youve mined. and short of that they will take anything else they can lay hands on. we just barely got back here our selves.ill go get hanford. its not good he is up there alone." when single got to the site of the steam crusher he could see handford struggling with a heavy peice of the machine. when he got closer hanford looked up " help me here will you?" single helped him line the bolt holes up while he boltd the peice on. " hanford we need to get back to camp. its not safe for you to be up here alone. we need to make a plan. "single told him. " we need to get this working so we can extract the gold!" hand ford was tightning the bolts. " you dont understand , that gold is what is causing problems. those bandits will kill you for it and if no gold they take everything of value and still kill you. lets get to camp."single had hanford by the arm" look, clara is down there alone come on!" hanford looked at single in disbelief, but he let him lead him away back to camp.